Charities and social enterprises helped cut 3,850 tonnes of CO2 emissions through a programme enabling business-university collaborations to tackle climate change.

Eco-I North West, a large-scale research and development initiative, supports small and medium-sized organisations from any sector to develop low carbon innovations in partnership with six of the region’s universities – Lancaster, Central Lancashire, Cumbria, Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores and Manchester Metropolitan.

Launched in 2020, the three-year programme, which is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), is now working with more than 180 SMEs across the region to create new sustainable technologies, products and services to accelerate the green economic recovery.

With a year remaining, it says that Eco-I NW is on target to help 369 businesses to develop 135 new solutions and remove 3,850 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere.

Among the latest charities and social enterprise to sign up are Brampton2Zero, a non-profit organisation exploring net carbon zero projects to increase biodiversity and carbon sequestration in Brampton, Cumbria.

It is working to develop a future community energy scheme which uses solar power to decarbonise buildings and supports the introduction of EVs charging stations.

Phil Furneaux, Brampton 2 Zero's founding director said: "Our organisation is driven by volunteers tackling some ambitious and far-reaching projects.

"What we lack is the expertise and resources to help accelerate our energy project which could introduce solar power to decarbonise a variety of buildings in the town including industrial units and support the introduction of EVs charging stations.

"Eco-I NW has been a huge help in helping us achieve the essential research and surveys to fast track our ideas into something achievable."

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